California’s Newly Reformed Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly

Abstract

The main issues of this paper address California's residential care facilities for the elderly and its reformation in late September 2014 due to advocacy pressure after 29 years of non-compliance. There are approximately 36,000 assisted living (AL) and residential care (RC) facilities in the United States, which house over a million people. Although the federal government standardized nursing home guidelines, the AL and RC industry is state regulated. These facilities are comprised of a wide variety of facilities serving a range of people needing various levels of medical and personal assistance. California's Residential Care Facilities for the Elderly (RCFE) comprise the AL and RC industry. To examine the differences between federal and state housing standards of aging individuals, the authors chose the state of California because of its high population of residents in RCFEs and to discuss some of the reform measures from the RCFE Reform Act of 2014.